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Well if you were tracking my earlier post, the Paris event was last night (the 15th) and the London event just finished, and from what Pierre tells me it was the best one so far! The Paris one had barrel tastings of the 2014 Giscours and a special new kosher first – a bottle (really barrel tasting) of Armagnac!!

Armagnac was one of the first regions to make distilled spirits in France, in the early days it was used for therapeutic reasons. Though many now a days – think the same way – best way to close out a night of drinking! I hope to get more info on the Chateau de Gensac Armagnac – when it is released.

The image of the bottle, looks awesome and is another reason for why each of these KFWE events have their own thing. Paris’s Bokobsa event is all about the French wines that are sold in France, some of which Royal does not import into the USA. It also has different wines than the US or the Israel events. Why? Because Royal has contracts with other wineries for Europe than it does with the US! So Bravdo Winery is imported to Europe through Royal as is Dalton Winery as well (at least to London anyway). In the USA – River imports Bravdo and Allied imports Dalton.

With those two events completed – the next ones on the book are the Zur KFWE tasting in Tel Aviv on February 22nd. Then comes the epic grand daddy of them all – KFWE NYC, which will be hosting its 10th anniversary of the original bash that started in 2007! The 10th anniversary event will be returning to its earlier roots, Pier 60, after a failed attempt to move it to a different venue last year. The event will be at Pier 60 on Monday the 29th starting at 5:30PM if you bought the VIP tickets before they sold out or 6:30 for everyone else! Again general admission tickets can be bought here for the 2016 KFWE NYC and use the promo code CORKBOARD18.

Sadly, the VIP session has already been sold-out, and the older coupon code has expired. The non-VIP session is available and hopefully its return the Chelsea Piers will make for a far more enjoyable and manageable experience than last year. Also, on an aside – KUDOS to London and NYC KFWE pages for adding the links to each others events! Cross advertising that I recommended in my earlier post was finally implemented!

Next stop – warm and sunny Los Angeles! The KWFE LA last year was the hands down winner for its epic VIP session, and the VIP session is back and I would tell everyone to jump on them before they sell out! Order tickets here NOW and use my coupon code of MUSINGS to get a 15% discount off the rack rate! This year they moved the event from the W Hotel to a larger and more swanky place to capture the true LA experience! It is being held at the Petersen Automotive Museum. It is a lovely scene and one that will have space to expand the VIP session to have even more madness – see rooftop pic below!

After that – you would think you should be exhausted and ready for a break and I am sure you will need it and it will be well deserved. However, soon afterwards it is time to go to The Grand Kosher Wine Tasting on March 6th from 5:30 PM to 8:30PM at The Grapevine Wines & Spirits, in Wesley Hills, New York! When you are there, say hello to Yehoshua Werth, he is the wine man at the Grapevine!

Next up is the Jewish Week event. Now I was hard on the event last year, and justifiably so. Last year the event was far too overcrowded, oversold, and the wines that were poured were not all winners. So, I will be honest, I was surprised when Rich Waloff, Associate Publisher of Jewish Week emailed me and told me they were going to fix it all this year. Kudos to the team for stepping up and trying to rectify the issues. So, this year they will be limiting the entries, raising the prices and creating their own VIP session! Long live the VIP Session.

The date is Monday March 28th at 5PM for the VIP Session and 6PM for the main session. The event closes at 9PM. The link to buy tickets is here. I hope the event does return to its earlier roots, of being a boutique cross wine distributor event where quality and price is a premium!

Finally, there is another event that will be happening, and NO – it is not the Kosher Wine Extravaganza (though I am holding out hope that Costas will still have one this year)! No, this is another Los Angeles wine event being held at the Majestic in Downtown LA on Sunday March 20th. There is a VIP session (of course – the VIP session is the theme this year) starting at 4PM and general admission starts at 5PM. The event is showcasing Israeli wines and acclaimed chefs to promote a non for profit organization – called Meir Panim that is fighting poverty in Israel. IWPA will be involved with their wines and many highly acclaimed chefs will be there to support the cause. COME ON Los Angeles show up and show you care about good kosher food and wine!

If I were you – I would recommend you buy the tickets of the KFWE that apply to you ASAP and then go to the events with the mind of enjoying yourself, but also with the mind of learning! These events are the best opportunity to see what wines you like, love, crave, and most importantly hate!

As I posted in my year in review, we all need to educate ourselves in what makes you happy in the kosher wine world. The best way to do that is to attend RCC tastings (that happen monthly), or one of the many kosher wine events that happen in and around the Passover wine buying season.

This year is no different as in the past, thankfully I have the dates for almost all the events – the only one missing, for now, is the Jewish Week wine event that happens every year at the City Winery in NYC. I hope they do something about it though, as last year was a disaster. It was so overcrowded – it made the KFWE NYC look like a playground during class hours!

The first and IMHO, the best KFWE in the books is the Tzur tasting in Tel Aviv. The Miami event was actually quite nice, but it happens in December of the previous year and in this case it happened already on December 15th at the Turnberry Isle Hotel, in Aventura Fl.

A new theme throughout the KFWE family is the classic approach of steal what works best! The KFWE system is basically a brotherly rivalry between the cities – with London/NYC/LA being the three official ones, and Miami/Israel/Paris being less so. Still, when one idea works for one of the siblings – you can be sure it will be copied with each others personal tastes. In this case I am talking about the VIP session. I exalted the idea in my post about the KFWE in LA, and while I was in awe of the VIP room, the other area in LA needed more space. So, they too will be moving, but the VIP room/experience is 100% On like Donkey Kong!

Another fascinating aspect of this year’s official KFWE tastings is that there is no love lost between the siblings. By that I mean, there is no cross promotion of any kind between the London, NYC, or LA events! I wonder why that is the case? It is not like these are zero-sum options! People who live in NYC will go there, though many go to the LA event as it has been far more hospitable in previous years than the over crowded NYC event. Still, why not cross promote? It is free advertising!

So, the London event is on the 16th and then you hop on a plane and fly to Israel for the Tzur (not so much called KFWE) tasting on Monday February 22nd in the evening. Then hop on a plane and fly to the Granddaddy of them all – the original KFWE NYC and use the promo code CORKBOARD18.

Sadly, the VIP session has already been sold-out, and the older coupon code has expired. The non-VIP session is available and hopefully its return the Chelsea Piers will make for a far more enjoyable and manageable experience than last year.

Then hop on another plane and make your way to warm Los Angeles! The KWFE LA last year was the hands down winner for its epic VIP session, and the VIP session is back and I would make advise all to jump on them before they sell out! Order tickets here NOW and use my coupon code of MUSINGS to get a 15% discount off the rack rate! This year they moved the event from the hotel to a much larger and more swanky LA experience location! It is being held at the Petersen Automotive Museum. It is a lovely location and one that will have space to expand the VIP session to have even more madness – so look for that!

After that – you would think you should be exhausted and ready for a break and I am sure you will need it and it will be well deserved. However, soon afterwards it is time to go to The Grand Kosher Wine Tasting on March 6th at 5:30 PM to 8:30PM at The Grapevine Wines & Spirits, in Wesley Hills, New York! When your there say hello to Yehoshua Werth, he is the wine man at the Grapevine!

UPDATE: The Jewish Week’s Grand Wine Tasting at the City Winery is on March 28, from 5:30 to 8:30.

Well there you have it! I will post again once I have purchase links for the Jewish Week event. The event I am hoping will come back is the Gotham Kosher Wine Extravaganza! It took off a year again last year and I hope it will be back for good this year!

If I were you – I would recommend you buy the tickets of the KFWE that apply to you ASAP and then go to the events with the mind of enjoying yourself, but also with the mind of learning! These events are the best opportunity to see what wines you like, love, crave, and most importantly hate!

We still have no official word on the Gotham wine event. However, the The Jewish Week’s Grand Wine Tasting is set, as always at the City Winery. It is on Monday March 16th and it starts at 5:00 PM and ends at 8:30 PM. Tickets are available here.

I will keep this short and sweet – the 2015 kosher wine events are all in and will start selling out VERY soon.

The first one you MUST jump on is the 2015 Kosher Food and Wine Festival (KFWE) at Metropolitan Pavilion 125 W 18th St., NY, NY 10011 on February 9th, 2015. It literally sells out each and every year, and all the procrastinators complain to me bitterly, about how they cannot get in – well BUY YOUR TICKETS and they are 18 dollars off still. My coupon code this year is MUSINGS18, put it on the second page, after you checkout button, before the buy button.

New wines this year at both the KFWE NY and the KFWE-LA, some making their debut at the show include:

Herzog Variations – showcasing the unique qualities that different regions of California’s famed wine country bring to their wines.

Ovadia by Ovadia Bartenura Montepulciano d’Abruzzo

Flam Noble, the new flagship offering from Flam

Pavillon de Leoville Poyferre – a new young approachable Bordeaux from a top 2ndgrowth chateau in Bourdeaux

Herzog Single Vineyard Dry Creek – Herzog Wine Cellar’s Annual single vineyard release which showcases a wine made from grapes sourced from a distinguished vineyard in California.

Titora Winery, located in Modi’in, Israel, is the newest boutique winery whose products are imported and distributed by Royal Wine Corp.

Guests will enjoy tastings from more than 20 kosher restaurants, caterers and gourmet specialty food companies from the greater NYC area including sushi, BBQ, Asian, Continental, French, and traditional kosher with some modern twists! For those guests with a sweet tooth, not to worry, to complete the experience there will be desserts galore including cookies, pastries, ice cream (parve of course) and other specialty desserts.

The next wine event is the Grapevine Wines Grand Tasting for Sunday February 15th, 2015 at the Grapevine Wines shop in Monsey, NY. The tasting is from 5:30 – 8:30 PM, it is the 15th Year anniversary of the Kosher Wine store. The wine event will take place at 455 Route 306 Wesley Hills, NY 10952, 845-364-9463. Ask for Yehoshua Werth.

The next one is the return of the Gotham Wine Extravaganza, that was a blast last year! The date is not yet set, but look here for updates. As I have reported for the past many years, Gotham throws a crazy wine tasting with an array of wines unmatched by any other kosher wine tasting event, as there are wines from all of the kosher wine importers. I hope that anyone in the New York City can make it.

The next wine kosher event is the City Winery event, that is another kosher wine event that includes many wine importers and it is also does not yet have a date, but look here for updates. Last year the event was quite impressive, and I am sure it will be equally impressive this year.

In case you were asleep for the KFWE and the IFWF, in New york and California, respectively. You still have two more chances, if you live on the east coast!

The KFWE was a huge success for 2014, and was probably the best year so far with the massive Horn Blower Yacht that helped keep the balance of humans to wine and food consumption in check. The event in California was a blast, and the IFWF continued to prove that Royal was going to put itself out for both coasts of this great country.

So, you were asleep at the wheel, or you had family over, or worse, you had to work! My friends you are saved! Because the Gotham Wine Extravaganza, that took a year off last year – is back and ready to go! The date is set, for Sunday March 23rd. As I have reported for the past many years, Gotham throws a crazy wine tasting with an array of wines unmatched by any other kosher wine tasting event, as there are wines from all of the kosher wine importers. I hope that anyone in the New York City can make it. Please I beg of you GET TICKETS!!! You can get them here, and if I were you, please splurge another 30 bucks and go for the VIP event, Costas always has a few hard to find and enjoying wines that he shares with his crazy wine loving fans! The event this year will return to its old stomping grounds, at the Lincoln Square Synagogue, (AKA Wink and stare) 180 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10023. The VIP session will start at 12:30, and general entry is at 3:00 PM till 6:00 PM.

VIP Tasting: 12:30pm – 2:00pm

Tickets available on line only! $70.00 per

(VIP tickets entitles attendees to the entire event)

Early Admittance: 2:00pm – 3:00pm

Tickets available on line only! $40.00 per

Regular Tickets: 3:00pm – 6:00pm

Tickets available on line $30.00 per ($35.00 at the Door)

To pass up on the Gotham wine event is pure insanity! This is your chance to enjoy, the best of Royal’s wines, along with Dalton Winery, Teperberg Winery, Adir Winery, Hevron Heights Winery, Bravdo Winery, Vignobles David Winery, Yarden, and so many others my head hurts! In the essence, this is an event with all kosher wineries and distributors being represented!

Finally, if you cannot make the Gotham event, the last chance to taste through kosher wines from all around the world will be at the City Winery event, This is another kosher wine event that includes many kosher wine importers. Last year the event was quite impressive, and I am sure it will be equally impressive this year. The event is at the City Winery (155 Varick Stree, between Spring and Vandam Streets, New York, New York 10013), on Monday March 31st from 5:00 till 8:30 PM. Yes, it is a school night, but for the LOVE OF GOD, get out and get a babysitter, believe it or not TV is not a substitute! You can get tickets here and you can use a coupon from my buddy – Yossie’s Corkboard “fjwmg” to get $11 off the regular ticket price.

In the end, these are the last two vestiges of kosher wine tastings – and when you are done, please buy our wines from either the purveyors listed to the right, or a local store you buy from often. NO, I do not make money from any merchant of kosher wine, but they are very good purveyors of kosher wine, and if your local kosher wank is better – go with him or her!

Finally, PLEASE drink responsibly this Purim and remember to enjoy wine with friends and family!!!

I will keep this short and sweet – the 2014 kosher wine events are all in and will start selling out VERY soon.

The first one you MUST jump on is the 2014 Kosher Food and Wine Festival (KFWE) at Pier 60, Chelsea Piers, in New York City on February 24, 2014. It literally sells out each and every year, and all the procrastinators complain to me bitterly, about how they cannot get in – well BUY YOUR DARN TICKETS and they are 20 dollars off still. I did not get a coupon this year, but you can use the Kosher Wine Society’s coupon (KWS20).

The next wine event is the Grapevine Wines Grand Tasting for Sunday March 2nd, 2014 at the Grapevine Wines shop in Monsey, NY. The tasting is from 5:30 – 8:30 PM, it is the 15th Year anniversary of the Kosher Wine store. The wine event will take place at 455 Route 306 Wesley Hills, NY 10952, 845-364-9463. Ask for Yehoshua Werth.

The next one is the return of the Gotham Wine Extravaganza, that took a year off last year – but is back and ready to go! The date is set, for Sunday March 23rd. As I have reported for the past many years, Gotham throws a crazy wine tasting with an array of wines unmatched by any other kosher wine tasting event, as there are wines from all of the kosher wine importers. I hope that anyone in the New York City can make it.

The next wine kosher event is the City Winery event, that is another kosher wine event that includes many wine importers and is on Monday March 31st. Last year the event was quite impressive, and I am sure it will be equally impressive this year.

Unless you have been living under a rock for some time, you would know that I am a huge fan of the Bravdo winery! The winery is a family affair, with Professor Bravdo making the wine and his daughter, Hadar managing the winery. I really enjoyed visiting the winery, late last year, and re-tasting the 2010 red wines, that I tasted at the Gotham event in 2011. Well, recently at the 2012 Gotham Wine Extravaganza, I had the chance to meet Hadar again and taste through the new vintages of the wonderful wines!

Bravdo is imported into the United States by Happy Hearts Wine Importers, who has kept the prices on these wonderful wines at a reasonable level, while also continuing to make the newest vintages available, and not bringing in old wines. While, I was talking with Hadar, which is always a joy, Benyamin, manager of Happy Hearts, swung by and proudly stated that Happy Hearts had suggested they make a blend – and the output was Coupage! WOW! That is quite synergistic, if I say so myself, the importer suggesting a different wine, and the Professor delivering, with what I think is the best bottle, along with the Shiraz, that Bravdo makes.

There was one slightly under performing wine and that was the 2011 Bravdo Chardonnay, but given the trouble that 2011 presented, in Israel and the US, the wine is just fine thank you.

I must excuse myself for the lack of pictures, but I seem to have forgotten to take pictures of the 2010 wines! I am very sorry. The bottles look the same as the 2009 vintages just of course with a different year. You can find those, along with the wine notes here.

So many thanks to Hadar, The Bravdo Family, Happy Hearts, and of course Costas for the wonderful opportunity to taste through these fantastic wines. I hope to be tasting through these wines again soon, at a shabbos table, where I can have a bit more time to enjoy them and actually drink them. Read the rest of this entry →

This is the tenth article I am writing on wineries from the Judean Hills wine region of Israel. No matter where you look around the landscape of Israeli wines and wineries you will find story after story of rebirth, renewal, and a fair amount of plain old new! Carmel, Binyamina, Barkan, were all producing mass consumption/bulk wine up until 1o to 15 years ago. Since then, they have seen serious rebirth, still selling almost undrinkable swill for the masses, and also selling high-end, and very respectable wines for us wine aficionados.

Personally, I think it is the correct business structure to have for a growing winery. You need simple bulk wines that have high margins and can be sold anywhere and everywhere. Wines that people buy in the millions, literally. Then you need wines that bolster the lineup, entry-level wine-drinker wines, that can be the bridge to take you from swill to paradise. Think white zinfandel from Herzog Wine Cellars, they sell those bottles by the millions and they are the perfect gateway drug to get you to Chenin Blanc and then maybe to Chardonnay or Black Muscat, and finally to some real dry red wines.

Today the winery we are looking at is the Teperberg winery which was founded in 1870 by the Teperberg family (from where the name of the winery is derived) in the Old City of Jerusalem. Actually, to be accurate it was located in an alleyway of the old city of Jerusalem, and may well have been the first winery in the modern era of Israel. Later in 1964, the winery moved outside of Jerusalem, to the then quiet suburb of Motza (now a thriving community), and took on the name Efrat. The winery, ignoring its many name changes, continues to mostly produce sacramental sweet wines, as that is what its main clientele are looking for. However, in the 1990s Efrat started to create dry red wines, and to be honest they were a disaster. I remember always passing up on them, even when in school, and buying Carmel dry or semi-sweet wines instead. Read the rest of this entry →

I have posted often about why we love going to the Gotham Kosher Wine Extravaganza. Sure, Royal Wine’s International Food and Wine Festival is quite lovely, but in the end the wines are just from the Royal’s vast Portfolio. At the Gotham Wine Extravaganza, you get to taste Royal’s wines (though we skipped most of them this year as they were repeats of the IFWF) and wine from 7 other importers. To me this was the best one yet, hands down. We have been coming to this event for four years now, and it was where we first met many in the NY wine scene, as well. The evening was absolutely fantastic. Last year’s event was complicated by the difficulty of finding a place for the event. This year’s event was planned out beautifully in advance and it was once again hosted in the same location as it was last year – the West Side Institutional.

As stated many times already, the event is driven by the master in arms, Costas Mouzouras, General Manager of Gotham Wines of Manhattan, NY, and his merry band of helpers. Just like last year, the tables were setup by wine importer rather than by region, because at this event there was more than just one importer. The event is one of those truly rare opportunities where a person is able to taste wines from all around the world, from any importer, and almost any top line kosher wine that exists out there. Of course, there was a very large table of wines imported by Royal Wines. However, there was another 14 tables of wines and food from all around the world! Every year I feel like a kid in a candy shop!

Where else can you taste up to 500 or more different wines that are from wineries as varied as Dalton, Tepperberg, Recanati, Tishbi, Bravdo Winery, Happy Hearts Importer, Victor Wines, Hevron Heights, River Importers, and Royal (Carmel, Capcanes, and Yatir Winery). Each of these tables has the winemaker, wine importer, or wine expert. They were knowledgeable about the wines and as passionate about them as I am about wines. Overall the event was another home run. There must have been easily a couple hundred people at the event, all packed into the second floor of WSI. That said, I never had to wait long to get a glass of wine, and even if one of the people manning the tables was busy talking to a guest about a wine or winery, there was another person happy to pour for others. There was also a fair amount of wine mavens/maniacs, like me, that were a joy to converse with and get tips on what wines were really special or interesting to try, which came in handy when there are so many wines to look at/try.

As I have reported on for the past few years, Gotham throws a crazy wine tasting with an array of wines unmatched by any other kosher wine tasting event. They serve wines from many distributors and wine producers. While last year’s event initially had a hard time finding a place, this year it is all ready to go! I hope that anyone in the area can make it. It has returned to its old time of 3 PM on a Sunday, this time March 4th in a new location; WestSide Institutional, here is the map.

As usual there are two other options. The first is the VIP session where you will be able to taste many Teperberg wines along with Chief Winemaker Shiki Rauchberger of Teperberg Winery. You will also get to taste a few special wines that Costas finds in his or the Gotham’s private collection.

Favorite Wine Sites

The late Daniel Rogov's forumThe best place to find out about wine from Israel and around the world. We post on there often and so do many others.

Liquid KosherLiquid Kosher sells wine that is a cut above the rest, wines made for long term storage, special occasions, or rare/special format bottles.

Kosher WineKosherWine.com is one of the largest online stores for kosher wine. It has great deals and a TON of kosher wine.

Skyview WineSkyview wine is a great place to buy those medium to high priced, hard to find, kosher wines and spirits.

Gotham WinesIf you cannot find the wine at KosherWine or Skyview then it is probably at Gotham wines.

Taste Wine Company
Taste Wine Company is a store in Manhattan that is run by a friend - Gary Landsman. The shop does not sell much kosher wine, but around Passover and Rosh Hashanah he is sending out kosher wine emails that have great deals on many nice kosher wines. The store’s email address is: info@tastewineco.com or call Gary: (212) 461-1708 and/or check out some of the kosher wine options here!

Four Gates WinerySmall winery growing and cultivating certified organic grapes in California's Santa Cruz Mountains. The wines are kosher for Passover and not Mevushal. The website includes a description and list of current releases. Disclaimer - Benyamin (the owner of the winery) is a friend.